Microsoft, Adobe merger? Yeah, right

Redmond rejects rumour as 'nonsense'

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A merger between software vendors Microsoft and Adobe has been reportedly dismissed as “nonsense” by sources inside Redmond.

The New York Timesreported yesterday that MS boss Steve Ballmer and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen had been in talks recently, sparking speculation that a buyout could be imminent.

As The Register and other new outlets have previously noted, Microsoft has been doing its best to approach acquisitions steadily this past fiscal year. Earlier this week it went public about its planned takeover of AVIcode. Prior to that, the firm kept 15 small-fry acquisitions under its hat.

And even with AVIcode, it didn’t make a huge fuss about the takeover.

So, given Ballmer’s cautious behaviour around possible and planned company mergers, would he really be considering a marriage with Adobe?

That’s unlikely, as digesting a company as big as the Flash and Acrobat software maker could be a bit like trying to eat a whole cow in one sitting. Surely Ballmer has enough on his plate right now.

Kara Swisher at All Things Digital cited several Microsoft sources, all of whom said such talk of an acquisition of Adobe was “nonsense”.

However, that didn’t stop Adobe’s stock rocketing on Wall Street yesterday following the rumour. ®